Summer reading programs first started in the late 1800s to give urban students something to do during their breaks while their rural counterparts sweated it out on the farm.

Now they’ve got a new purpose: stanching our youth’s collective summer brain drain.

“When children don’t read over the summer, they actually lose some of their skills, and when they return to school they have to relearn a lot,” said Sharon Deeds, youth services coordinator for the DeKalb County Public Library. “We want to keep the momentum going.”

The library and the DeKalb County School System are teaming up to encourage children and teens to read over the summer with their Vacation Reading Program, which ends later this month. Library workers visited county schools throughout May encouraging students to sign up for the program, which is open to any student up to 17 years old.

Interested parties can visit any local county library to sign up. Registering can also be done online. There will be a special wrap-up for teens at the Decatur Library from 1 to 3 p.m. on July 31 to celebrate the end of the program. Entertainment will include a local band, The Solar Bears, and teen singer/songwriter Sydney Rhame.

The Path2College 529 Plan, Georgia’s 529 college savings plan, is also partnering with libraries statewide for the inaugural Make a Splash – Save for College Sweepstakes. One Vacation Reading Program participant in the state born after 1993 will win more than $5,000 for a college education. The Path2College 529 Plan, managed by TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing Inc., will sponsor the sweepstakes, which also ends July 31.

In addition to the Vacation Reading Program, children and teens can attend special programs, such as Royal Class: Kente, Gold Trade and the Asante Kingdom presented by the Michael C. Carlos Museum for tweens ages 9-14, tours of Georgia State University Bio Bus, a mobile science lab for children ages 6-12 and the Kidz 4 Money Teen Summit, a special program for teens 13 to 17 focusing on topics such as leadership and financial literacy.

But the library is also stressing the need for parents to get involved in their children’s reading, Deeds said. It’s one of the main factors in continuing a student’s education through the summer. Parents should try to create a “literate-rich” home, Deeds said, with books, magazines and newspapers available for children. They should also see their parents read.

“Some children have a hard time reading, and they think the only way they can read is to sit down with a book, but listening to an audio book is a great way to read,” Deeds said.